UPDATE: "A dairy farmer said there was concern about fracking’s potential impact on food producers in the are... worried the tremors would cause damage to underground aquifers and local watercourses could become contaminated... The EU has said that if we have contamination in our area they could restrict food access up to a 30-mile radius. That is massive... Who is going to want to eat food that is coming from a polluted area?”
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Bleadon is in a 'fracking' licence area, just the same as the site in Blackpool, Lancashire where earthquakes are happening.
Bleadon landowners have already been approached with the intention to start exploratory drilling. Will regular earthquakes be part of Bleadon and surrounding communities future too?
Blackpool Earthquake Monday 26 August - Article by Metro:
"Drilling for shale gas is still at an exploratory phase. However, reserves of shale gas have been identified across large swathes of the UK ... More than 100 licences have been awarded by the government, allowing firms to pursue a range of oil and gas exploration activities in certain areas ..." including that of Bleadon and surrounding area.
"Hundreds of people are believed to have felt the quake that was big enough to wake people up ... it was just like someone dropping a whole supermarket and all the shoppers’ bags of groceries on Blackpool ... It was quite a large shudder. It felt like someone had driven into the house or dropped a wardrobe down the stairs!The walls of my house shook, there was a really deep, guttural roar. For a moment, I really thought my house was going to fall down"
Blackpool Earthquake Sunday 25 August - Article by Metro:
"Pausing work for 18 hours is the routine response for any tremor over 0.5. Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth said in 60 days of fracking last year there were 57 tremors in Lancashire and that it cannot be carried out without triggering earthquakes. Jamie Peters, a campaigner for the organisation, said: ‘Even small vibrations at ground level can be the sign of far more damaging impacts deep underground.’"
"The UK’s fracking site in Blackpool has been hit by the largest ever tremor recorded at the facility – the third earthquake at the site in just four days ... to hit the shale gas exploration site ... ...The British Geological Survey said the tremor had a depth of 2km (1.2 miles) and was felt by residents in Great Plumpton, Blackpool and Lytham St Annes ..".
The Government has said the extraction of shale gas through fracking could support the UK’s transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions."
Although North Somerset Council is responsible for permitting any development this ability for local decision making may change in the future. In the meantime Bleadon Parish Council has declared Bleadon Frack Free.
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Link to previous blog How Fracking Surveys and Consultations Affect Bleadon
Link to mapping and information on BOB's Fracking page
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